Hi everyone, I’m almost done creating a list of colleges to apply to in the fall. I’m an Asian female who goes to a very competitive public school in California. Please critique this list and tell me if I should remove schools or suggest some more. Also, if you feel like any school is misplaced, feel free to tell me what it should be (something I put as a safety is actually a target, etc.) Thanks!
Here are my basic stats:
GPA: 3.75 UW/4.1 W
UC GPA (UW/cap weight/fully weight): 3.59/3.95/4.14
SAT (highest sitting, but I will retake in November 2015): 2nd sitting: 2210 (680CR/800M/730W/10E)
SAT (superscore): 2220 (690CR/800M/730W/10E)
SAT 2: Chem and Math 2: 770 RETAKING BOTH Oct 2015
Honors Courses taken (school only offers 8, and there’s no way we can take all of them): Chinese, Chem, Lit, Pre-Calc
AP Courses with scores: Chinese (5), APUSH (5), APLAC (4 merp lol), Chem (5) planned: US Gov, Macroecon, Calc AB (possibly BC), AP Physics 1, AP Lit
Intended Major: Chemistry/Undecided (depending on the school)
Yes it is. I think you should throw in one of your possible schools as well (one that is a reach). Vandy?
My counselor told me 4-5 safeties is actually really excessive. So maybe you should cut one or two out and throw in a couple more reaches.
I assume HMC = Harvey Mudd and SCU=Santa Clara University
Your list does not seem self consistent. Your ED colleges (Scripps and Harvey Mudd) are LACs, and Santa Clara University (College of Arts and Sciences) is a “small” university. Most of your other colleges are very large. I would have thought that adding one or two alternate LACs (less selective than Scripps and Harvey Mudd) to your safeties/match colleges, while leaving UCSC and possibly SJSU as safeties/matches would have served you well. In practice out-of State publics such as University of Washington, University of Michigan, University of Illinois, University of Texas are not the best values.
Perhaps the inconsistency is that you really want a larger university than Scripps.
@fogcity the reason why I’m applying to Scripps (and ED of all things) is because my dad is kinda pushing it onto me. I like HMC a lot better than Scripps, but I need to get all of my scores up first. Also, I do have Occidental (mediumish LAC) as a match school.
Generally, you only need one or two safety schools, unless you are trying to get merit aid or scholarships. Is there a reason why you are applying to so many? You are going to be exhausted trying to get that many applications in the mail if you don’t get into your ED1 school.
@michelle426 who cares what ur dad thinks, apply ED1 to YOUR TOP CHOICE NOT HIS. Also u don’t need to retake the SAT 2s, anything above a 750 on them is fine and won’t increase ur chances of admission unless u get a 800
I mentioned on another thread that you can aspire to a better fit (social/academic) than Scripps for ED. If you apply ED1 to Scripps, I hope you realize that you’re very likely going to Scripps. The ED rate is 43%. Your W GPA is around the average. Your SAT scores are likely hovering around the 75th percentile, overall. Less math/science-oriented schools like Scripps are going to eat up your 800 M, to get their M stats up. I’d say you have a 75%+ chance of admission to Scripps, for ED. You have a really good shot at Scripps for RD, and good chances for a solid UC, so your father’s panic is unfortunate.
@Dunboyne yeah I kind of realized that there’s very little chance of me getting deferred or rejected from ED at Scripps. The only way I can ED1 HMC is if I get nail my ACT in September and my Subject Tests in October, because my SAT scores are kind of on the lower end of their range, and I have to compensate for my GPA.
7 of the 19 are UCs that share the same application. SJSU and CPSLO are CSUs which share a base application, though CPSLO considers some extra stuff (applying to SJSU would be a subset of the work of applying to CPSLO).
So that drops to 12 unique applications. If some of the other schools use the Common Application or Universal Application, that may reduce the unique work for each school to the supplemental essays and such.
ED is only appropriate for your first choice. Why does your father want you to go to Scripps when it is not your first choice?
@ucbalumnus I have no idea. My parents (not just my dad) and I haven’t always seen eye to eye with things. I’m in a bind because he’s paying for everything, and he can be quite aggressive. I’m not their “favorite” child either, they like to focus their time on my younger brother (rising junior) because he is quite… “slow” (don’t know any other way to put it. he hasn’t been diagnosed with a learning disorder but isn’t doing that great in school). My failure to thrive in sophomore year may play a role in it too. I’m just not sure. Every time I ask him it’s always something along the lines of: “you can’t get in” or “I won’t pay for that” or “You deserve better”.